John Pratt writes to John Palmer to inform him that he hasn’t been appointed to Government (August 1782), (from the private papers of John Palmer)

In this letter, Lord of the Admiralty John Pratt tells John Palmer that he has ‘the disagreeable task of informing you of the disappointment of your wishes’. Palmer had applied for a government appointment but as Pratt relates the youthful Chancellor of the Exchequer and soon to be Prime Minister William Pitt has turned him down. Palmer a mail coach pioneer was eventually appointed Surveyor and Comptroller of Mails in 1786.